Literature Index

Displaying 2761 - 2770 of 3326
  • Author(s):
    George W. Cobb
    Editors:
    Robert Gould
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    As we begin the 21st century, the introductory statistics course appears healthy, with its emphasis on real examples, data production, and graphics for exploration and assumption-checking. Without doubt this emphasis marks a major improvement over introductory courses of the 1960s, an improvement made possible by the vaunted "computer revolution." Nevertheless, I argue that despite broad acceptance and rapid growth in enrollments, the consensus curriculum is still an unwitting prisoner of history. What we teach is largely the technical machinery of numerical approximations based on the normal distribution and its many subsidiary cogs. This machinery was once necessary, because the conceptually simpler alternative based on permutations was computationally beyond our reach. Before computers statisticians had no choice. These days we have no excuse. Randomization-based inference makes a direct connection between data production and the logic of inference that deserves to be at the core of every introductory course. Technology allows us to do more with less: more ideas, less technique. We need to recognize that the computer revolution in statistics education is far from over.
  • Author(s):
    Garfield, J.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    While there has been an impact on how statistics is being taught and increased satisfaction with the course, we still fall short of giving students the experiences they need to freely use statistical thinking and correct reasoning when they approach novel problems. While an introductory course cannot make novice students into expert statisticians, it should develop statistical thinking that can be applied to real world situations. Despite the proliferation of high quality new materials and technological tools, many instructors take a "black box" approach: simply using the materials and tools will somehow magically develop students' statistical thinking. What is needed is a method of teaching that is constantly linked to the goal of statistical thinking and provides teachers with the mechanism to evaluate how this goal is impacted by their teaching.
  • Author(s):
    Cumming, G.
    Year:
    1983
    Abstract:
    This paper describes a comparison of the performance and preferences of students assigned to streamed groups with those of students assigned to mixed-ability groups.
  • Author(s):
    Fischbein, E.
    Editors:
    Hintikka, J., Cohen, R., Davidson, D., Nuchelmans, G., & Salmon, W.
    Year:
    1975
    Abstract:
    Productive reasoning of any kind is achieved through heuristics, and motivated by an anticipatory approach structured as intuition. This recognition has had important consequences in thinking about probability, since the intuitive substrate available in this domain is relatively inconsistent and ambiguous. A proper curriculum of probability learning should, then, take into account this primary intuitive substrate, and concern itself with improving it and with finding methods of building new intuitions which are readily compatible with it. Two main directions of research have been taken in relation to the formation of the concept of probability. The first originated by Tolman and Brunswick, concerns what has been termed probability learning. The second main line of research concerns the organisation of conceptual schemas in the domain of probability: the development of concepts such as chance, proportion, and the estimation of odds, and the development on children of the concepts and procedures of combinatorial analysis. These two directions of research are focussed on rather different problems, and the techniques they use are, consequently, different. Yet, as will be seen in the following chapters, their findings can be successfully combined in an effort to reach a unified view of this area.
  • Author(s):
    Lee, C., Meletiou, M., Wachtel, H. K., & Zeleke, A.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    In this article, we exam students' motivations and expectations in introductory statistics. An interview study was conducted to investigate student motivations and expectations before taking the introductory statistics course. The study was conducted in four different types of institutions. Interviews were conducted two to three months after completing an introductory statistics course. Interviewees were chosen to represent the grade distribution by selecting three students from each grade level of A, B, and C or lower. Students' motivations are analyzed and classified into five types based on the existing motivation theories. Four scenarios that commonly occur in introductory statistics are analyzed using existing motivation frameworks. It is suggested that learning goals, instructor's expectation of students, and instructor's caring for student's learning progress are important strategies for motivations.
  • Author(s):
    Conti, C. & Lombardo, E.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    The first aim of this project was improving the knowledge of the censuses and their function and importance for the Country. The second aim was disseminating numeracy among the students of primary and secondary schools. ISTAT organized a simulated census asking students to answer a questionnaire that contains special questions for children (how many times can you bound back a balloon in fifteen seconds?) and other real official statistics questions, easy enough for children (way of reaching school in the morning; what was eaten at breakfast, atcivities in the free time). The students followed every step of the collecting process, even making exsercises using their own figures, then they sent the figures to ISTAT using an electronic form filled in on- line by Internet. ISTAT is now collecting the figures to give back statistics to the schools who participated in the project.
  • Author(s):
    Clark, C.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    The U.S. Federal statistical agencies have long faced the challenge of creating an expert, stable workforce with skills in census and survey methods relevant to the production of official statistics - interdisciplinary skills not available in a single academic department. Numerous statistical commissions identified this need, but no ameliorative action was taken until the fiscal year 1991 Boskin Initiative for Economic Statistics promoted funding. The Joint Program in Survey Methodology was selected through a process administered by the National Science Foundation. Funding now comes through a contract with participation from twelve statistical agencies. Present and future agency employees participate in academic and short courses and seminars and are enrolled in citation, certificate, and graduate degree programs. Survey problems are addressed in courses that allow transfer of knowledge between the work environment and the academic learning experience. This partnership has substantially enhanced the capabilities of the federal statistical workforce. The paper reviews challenges and successes through this partnership.
  • Author(s):
    Chadjipadelis, T., Ginis, D. & Kyritsis, I.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    The purpose of this research is to investigate the knowledge of the 1st grade High School students relating to the basic concepts of Statistics that are taught in Elementary School in Greece and to determine the effect that teaching through activities has on their performance. This research, which is part of a broader research conducted by the Department of Primary Education of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, was realised at the prefectures of Imathia and Pieria. The research provided useful conclusions, such as that the majority of teachers use traditional approaches in their teaching of Statistics, that students have a fair knowledge of most of Statistics' concepts that are included in the Elementary School Curriculum, that major improvement of this knowledge is observed after a teaching approach through activities and that the performance of students who live in urban areas is better in comparison to the performance of those who live in rural areas.
  • Author(s):
    Daniel L. Canada
    Year:
    2008
    Abstract:
    To create an environment in which all students have opportunities to notice, describe, and wonder about variability, this article takes a context familiar to many teacher - sampling colored chips from a jar - and shows how this context was used to explicitly focus on variation in the classroom. The sampling activity includes physical as well as computer simulations and has proven to generate lively discussion that highlights the tension between expectation on one hand and variation on the other.
  • Author(s):
    Ancker, J. S.
    Editors:
    Stephenson, W. R.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    Statistical terms are accurate and powerful but can sometimes lead to misleading impressions among beginning students. Discrepancies between the popular and statistical meanings of "conditional" are discussed, and suggestions are made for the use of different vocabulary when teaching beginners in applied introductory courses.

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The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education